From Old to New: How to Make Google Recognise Your Rebranded Brand Name

Rebranding is a bold and exciting step for any company. Whether you’re changing your company’s name, updating your logo, or giving your products a fresh identity, a rebrand signals growth and transformation. But there’s one challenge many businesses face: despite all the changes, Google still shows your old brand name in search results.

This can be frustrating. You want your new brand name to shine everywhere online — from your website to Google Search to social media. Yet, your old name lingers, confusing customers and diluting your brand impact.

So, how do you shift Google’s focus from your old brand name to the new one? How do you help Google understand that your brand’s identity has evolved? Let’s explore the practical, step-by-step ways to make this transition smooth and effective.

Why Does Google Keep Showing Your Old Brand Name?

Before diving into solutions, it helps to understand why Google continues to display the old brand name. Google’s search algorithm relies on signals from across the web. It looks at:

• Your website content and metadata
• Third-party websites mentioning your brand
• Social media profiles and bios
• Author information on articles and podcasts
• Public databases and directories

If most of these still use your old brand name, Google will keep ranking that name higher. Simply put, Google sees more evidence of the old name online, so it assumes that’s your primary identity.

Changing this requires a coordinated effort to update all those signals, both your own and others’.

Step 1: Align Your Own Digital Assets to the New Brand

The first and easiest place to start is with what you control — your own digital ecosystem.

What to Update?

• Website: Your homepage and every page on your site should clearly show your new brand name. This includes visible text as well as the HTML title tags and meta descriptions that Google reads.
• Alt Text: Images on your site often have alt text for accessibility and SEO. Make sure any old brand mentions here are changed.
• Structured Data: If you use schema markup to help Google understand your content, update the brand name there too.
• Knowledge Base and Support Pages: These pages often have brand mentions buried in content or FAQs. Don’t overlook them.
• Employee Bios: Bios on your company website, and even downloadable PDF profiles, need to reflect the new brand.
• Social Media Accounts: Update names, bios, handles where possible. Sometimes companies have inactive or legacy accounts that still mention the old brand.

Why This Matters

If you miss even a few places, Google will pick up on them. This slows the transition and causes mixed signals. Conduct a thorough audit to find every mention of your old brand name and update it.

Step 2: Update Third-Party Mentions and Citations

Once your own house is in order, the next step is to update how others reference your brand.

Who to Contact?

• Content Contributors: If your employees or leaders have contributed guest articles, podcasts, webinars, or interviews on other sites, update those bios and brand mentions.
• Business Listings: Google My Business, industry directories, review platforms, and local listings should all reflect the new name.
• Partner Websites: Suppliers, collaborators, and affiliates often mention your brand. Request updates from them.
• Media and PR Mentions: Reach out to journalists or bloggers who have written about your company.

How to Approach This?

Start with easy wins. For example, author bios on third-party sites often have simple update forms or contacts. These small changes send strong signals to Google.

In some cases, third parties may have multiple mentions of your brand on one page — ensure all are updated to maintain consistency.

Example from Experience

Mordy Oberstein, an SEO expert, updated all his author bios across the internet to feature his current company. Google’s Knowledge Panel started reflecting this change, showing images and links from his current brand instead of the old one.

Step 3: Run a Rebranding Awareness Campaign

Sometimes, despite your best efforts, old brand mentions linger in places you can’t control — forums, old articles, or websites that don’t respond to update requests.

This is where a public campaign announcing your rebrand can help.

Why Campaigns Matter

• Generate Buzz: A campaign helps spread your new brand name actively across digital channels.
• Encourage User Adoption: When your customers, partners, and followers see the new brand regularly, they start using it in their conversations and online mentions.
• Counteract Old Mentions: The more new content and social chatter around your new name, the less visible the old name becomes in Google search.

Campaign Ideas

• Press releases announcing the new brand name.
• Social media posts explaining the rebrand story.
• Email newsletters to your customers.
• Webinars or live events introducing the new identity.
• Paid ads highlighting the new brand name.

The goal is to flood the digital landscape with the new brand, making it the default association.

Step 4: Accept What You Cannot Control – And Move On

There will always be stubborn corners of the internet where your old brand name survives — outdated listicles, forum threads, archived pages, or forgotten mentions.

Trying to chase down and change every single mention can waste time and energy.

Instead:

• Focus on building presence with your new brand.
• Keep creating fresh content and engagement under the new name.
• Let Google’s algorithm naturally prioritise the newer, more relevant signals.

Eventually, those old mentions will fade in importance, appearing lower in search results or being ignored altogether.

Step 5: Be Patient – It Takes Time

Changing your brand name in Google search results is a process, not an event.

You won’t see overnight changes. It can take weeks or months for Google to fully update its understanding and rankings.

Signs You’re on the Right Track

• Increasing mentions of your new brand name across the web.
• More people asking if you rebranded or noticing the change.
• Updates to your Knowledge Panel showing your new branding.
• Higher rankings for searches on your new brand name.

Keep tracking these signals and stay consistent with your updates and campaigns.

Extra Tips to Smoothen the Transition

• Redirect Old URLs: If your brand name is part of your website’s URLs, set up 301 redirects to new URLs with the updated brand name.
• Update Backlinks: Where possible, ask partners and websites linking to your site to update anchor text to the new brand name.
• Use Google Search Console: Submit updated sitemaps and monitor indexing issues related to your brand name.
• Monitor Mentions: Use tools like Google Alerts or brand monitoring platforms to catch new mentions of your old or new brand name.
• Keep Social Media Handles Consistent: Secure social handles matching your new brand name to avoid confusion.

Conclusion

Rebranding is a bold step forward, but shifting Google’s recognition from your old brand name to your new one takes careful, consistent effort.

Start by updating every mention of your old brand name within your own digital assets. Then, reach out to third-party websites and contributors to update their references. Run a rebranding campaign to actively spread your new brand name. Accept that some old mentions will persist, but don’t let them distract you. Focus on building fresh signals and be patient.

In time, Google will recognise your new brand as the true identity of your business. When that happens, your efforts will pay off, and your new brand will shine brightly across the web.